Prince Charles Describes Chelsea Barracks As "Insane"

He just couldn't let it lie: Prince Charles has used an interview with Vanity Fair magazine to once again pontificate on his intervention in the Chelsea Barracks project. Inserted among familiar musings on the heir's favourite themes (nature, the environment, Islam) is another broadside at the Richard Rogers scheme, nixed after the Prince's involvement: he describes it as "insane", and says he stepped in because he doesn't like seeing London "mucked around with". Leaving aside the Prince's misguided view of insanity (this was a residential project, not some macabre Bond villain's lair), it offers a reminder of Charles' vision for London: a city pickled in aspic, disdainful of any new building that dares to look like something other than a pastiche of some bygone era.